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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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The Texas Pan-Handle— Texas Politics. 



SPEECH 



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HON. WILLIAM T. CLARK 



OF TEXA.S3 



DELIVERED 



# 



IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 



UARCn 2, 1872. 



"WASHINGTON: 
F. & J. RIVES & GEO. A. BAILEY, 

BEFOBTERS AND PRINTEBS OP TUB DEBATES 09 C0M0RES3. 
1872. 



CL 



The Texas Pan-Handle— Texas Politics. 



The IIou«e having met for debate as in Commit- 
tee of the Whole on the state of the Union- 
Mr. CLARK, of Texas, said : 

Mr. Speaker: I now resume the floor, and 
ask the Clerk to read a joint resolution in- 
troduced by me at this session, and to which I 
propose to address some remarks. 

The Clerk read as follows : 

Joint recolution providing for the cession by the 
State of Texas of certain territory of that State to 
the United States, for Indian reservations and 
other purpo?es. 

Retolved by the Senate and IFoime of Reprenentntivea 
of the United StateD of A)nerica in Conpreis osnem- 
bled. That the President of the United States be, 
and is hereby, authorized and directed to submit to 
the Legislature of the State of Texas an overture for 
the cession by the State of Texas to the United States 
of all that territory rightly belonging to the said 
State lying and being situate north and west of a 
line drawn from the northwest corner of Hardeman 
county, on the Red river, to the mouth of the Pecos 
river, where tho same empties iuto the Rio Grande 
del Norte. 

Skc. 2. That the foregoing overture by Congress 
shall be made upon tho Ibllnwing conditions, to wit: 
first, that the Legislature of the State of Texas shall 
give its consent to the cession of said territory for the 
present purposes of Indian reservations, and also 
for the formation and erection therein of new States, 
nnder tho Constitution of the United States, when- 
ever the Congress may so provide; secondly, that 
the United Slates shall pay to the said State of 
Toxa;^!, at the rate of filty cents per acre, for all 
vacant and unappropriated lands within the said 
territory, payable in four and one half percent, 
bonds of the United Slates, having not less than 
thirty years to run. to be executed and issued when 
the consent of the Legislature of Texas is duly filed 
in the nSico of the Secretary of State, together with 
oerliGed transcripts of the maps and surveys in said 
territory, showing the amount of vacant and unap- 
propriatea land therein, ouehalf of tho total amount 
of said bonds to remain in the United States Treas- 
ury to secure any ii)d«btedncss already created bv 
the laws of Texiis, the balance to bo paid into the 
Slate treasury, and to constitute a part of the pub- 
lic-school lund as provided in tho constitution of 
aaidStnte; thirdly, ihat the third paragraph of the 
secotid section of the joint resolution for ihn annex- 
ation of the republic of Texas, api>roved March 1, 
1843, providing for tho formation of new St:ite8 ot 
convenient bize, nut exceeding lour in number, be, 
and the same is hereby, reiicalcd, and tho Slate of 
Texas placed on an equal footing with llie other 
States, in regard to the forrauiimi of now States. 
under the Coasiiiutiuu of the Uuiied Slates. 



Mr. CLARK, of Texas. Mr. Spenker, the 
joint resolution introduced in Congress to pro- 
vide for the cession of certain territory by the 
State of Texas to the United Slates presents 
too wide a range of subjects to be compressed 
into a single speech, and it is difficult to select 
those points which may afford the strongest 
arguments for the adoption of the proposition. 

1 shall con6ne myself in this discussion, 
therefore, to three several propositions : first, 
the effect of the cession of this territory upon 
the educational inlerests of the State and of 
the country ; second, the advantage to the Uni- 
ted States in carrying out the Indian policy, 
thus far so successful ; and third, the final 
adjustment of the question of a division of the 
State, and a settling forever, so far as Texas 
is concerned, of the old Slate rights doctrine. 

First, then, the educational interests in- 
volved. This bill provides that one half the 
purchase money of the territory proposed to 
be ceded shall be paid into the treasury of 
the State of Texas, to constitute a part of the 
public school fund, in accbidaiice with the 
provisions of the constitution of that Stale. 

In a speecii delivered on the 6lh of February, 
Mr. Heundon, of Texas, my colleague, said : 
"I will not enter into a discussion of what the 
soulhern States under Democratic rule have done 
for education, to refute the charges made against 
them. This I leave to others, liut for Texas tho 
Democratic party provided liberally for common 
schools in every one of her several constitutions. 
She set apart 85.(X)0,000 for this purpose, and four 
leagues of land to each county in tho State, amount- 
ing to nearly three million acres of land yet uusold, 
and worth at least ten million dollars. Besides this 
the Radical State administration is wringing from 
the people nearly three million dollars per annum 
taxes for school purposes alone, and the school sys- 
tem there is recognized as a political machine, a 
nursery for non-resident partisan officials, all of 
whom, at the cost of their official heads, must advo- 
cate the party in power. Nor will I iirgue the bene- 
fits arising from donating lands to stimulate certain 
industries, the improvement of navigation, and the 
building up of institutions of learning with special 
objects lor public good. Nor. again, the authority 
for, or the wisdom of votinxone hundred and thirty- 
five million acres of public lands to the several 
Pacific railroads, and the unprecedented manner in 
which tills was doue. Nor do I discuss the bouefiC 



of reserving all thene lands for actual settlement of 
the native or foreiguer thnt may come to us for a 
home, or the wii<diprn of selling all the lands imme- 
diately, cuttiui; off the immense expense and apply- 
ing the proceeds to the public debt. Nor will I at- 
tempt to discuss the manifest intention of this bill to 
establish and sustain social equality between the 
races in theschoolsat the South, which would render 
it so obnoxious that the great body of the people 
there would i>refer no school at all rather than sub- 
mit to such degradation under the forms of law." 

Now, Mr. Speaker, I propose to show, by 
a vivid contrast between the legislation of 
Democracy during the past thirty ypars in the 
State of Texas and the acts of the Republican 
party since it catue info power there, how 
utterly unreliable are the statements of ray 
colleague regarding the educational interests 
of my State. An examination of the history 
of the legislation of Texas upon the suliject 
of education will show to what extent the 
Democratic parly has provided for common 
schools in every one of her several constitu- 
tions, and the history of the Democratic party 
will also show how clearly it has managed 
"how not to do it.'' The congress of the 
republic of Texas, some years previous to the 
existence of the Democratic party in that 
region, set apart first four leagues, or 17,712 
acres of land, as a school fund, which endow- 
ment was continued under the Stale ; but there 
was a prohibition upon llie' disposal of the-^e 
lands except by lease, which provision was 
continued until the session of the Democratic 
constitutional convention in 1800, when it was 
chanijed. 

The Democratic Legislature of that year 

f)assed a law providing for the sale of these 
ands at public auction. Under the circum- 
stances which surrounded the people of the 
State at that time, just emerged from civil 
war, the energies of the people paralyzed and 
their pubstance wasted in war, the only result 
of such a sale would have been to pass this 
fund away into the hantis of land speculators 
and corporations, and that such was the object 
of this Democratic legihlation has never been 
doubted or disputed except by the virtuous 
Democracy itself. 

Under the constitution of 1845 one tenth of 
the annual resources of the State were set apart 
as a school fund. Alter the sale of the Sania 
F6 territory to the United States the Lejjisla- 
ture enacted a law, approved January 31, 1854, 
setting apart a portion of tlie proceeds of the 
sale for the same purpose. The following is 
the first section of the act : 

"Iifxtenact''d,<f-c.. That the .«um of $2,000,000 of the 
five percent, bonds of the United Slates now remain - 
ing in the treasury of the State bo set ap irl as a 
■chool fund for the support and luainteuance of 
public schools, which shall be called the special 
school fund," &c. 

These $2,000,000 have been masjnified by 
the fruitful imagination of Mr. IIkkxdon into 
$5,000,000; a difference of only $8,000,000, a 
mere bagatelle, but illustrative of the virtues 



of the Democratic imagination on the subject 
of education in Texas. This act was entitled 
"An act to establish a system of schools." It 
provided for the location of school houses, but 
that no money should be drawn for school pur- 
poses until such houses and the necessary fi.x- 
tures were provided by the people of the school 
district. Not a single public school house 
was ever so provided in all the broad State of 
Texas, and the only distribution of money 
under the law was made by an evasion of the 
law in the use of private educational establish- 
ments. There were other provisions which 
made the law impracticable for any general 
good, it provided that il any portion of the 
patrons of the school established under it were 
unable to pay their share of the teacher's sal- 
ary, atid the trustees of the school were satis- 
fied of the fact, they should report to the chief 
justice of the county, who in turn reported the 
fact and the name to the State treasurer, who 
was thereupon authorized to [lay the quota 
thus reported. This was in eflect the estab- 
lishment of the pauper school sysi(.m, which 
has been the bane of the South and prevented 
the education of the people of that section, 
and is the only system that has ever received 
the sanction of the Democratic party. 

But this poor apology for a system was soon 
to pass away utider another enactiuent lirought 
about by the Democratic party. On the 13ih 
of August, 1856, the succeeding Legi>lature 
passed an act entitled "An act to provide for 
the investment of the special school fund in 
the bonds of railroad companies incorporated 
by the S ate." Theinvestment in United States 
bonds was not altogether secure ; the value of 
such securities might any day be destroyed by 
the exercise of the sovereign right of secession 
by South Carolina, or Texas, or any other of 
the southern Stales. 

This act provided that the five per cent, in- 
demnity bonds belonging to said sjiecial school 
may and shall be loaned to legally incorpor- 
ated railroad companies in the State, and to 
place the tiling beyond peradventure, by act 
of February 13, 1800, the two per cent, sink- 
ing fund was covered into the Treasury as 
a pait of the special school fund for reinvest- 
ment eiiher in the bonds of the aforesaid rail- 
road or in those of any of the slave-holding 
States of the Union. I call the attention of 
the House to the Democratic wisdom dis- 
played in this regard. This was a Democratic 
provision for common schools in IVx as before 
the war. After the war th^ Democracy was 
again placed in power under the "'my policy" 
ot AnJiew Johnson. The Democratic party 
controlled the convention which pa-^.-ed the 
consiiiuiion of 18G0. The constiiuiioii pro- 
vided thai the income from the school fund 
should be a perpetual fund exclusively for the 
education of the white schola.stio inhabitants 
of th" State. It prohibited the investment of 



5 



this fund except in bonds of the United States 
of America or the bonds of the Slate of Texas, 
or such bonds as the State may guarantee. The 
last clause of the last sentence is the point 
made by the Democracy of Texas a'^ain in 
regard to common schools. Fortunately, how- 
ever, that constitution has passed away. 

The net result of Democratic rule was that 
the SojOOO.OOO placed in the treasury by the 
sale of South Santa Fe were wasted by Demo- 
cratic misrule, and they only exist now in the 
imagination of Democratic orators. The Re- 
publican adiniuistratiou of the State is now 
earnestly at work trying to gather up the odds 
and ends and fragments of this magnificent 
fund, the remains of which was sent to Europe 
during the war to purchase military supplies 
for the confederacy, which fund ought to have 
contributed so largely to the education of the 
people and the development of the State. 

After the passage of the reconstruction laws 
the Republicans elected a majority of the con- 
vention of 1868, which framed the present con- 
stitution of the State. The first section of 
article ten is as follows: 

"Skctiov 1. It shall be tho duty of the Legislature 
of thi.s State to inaku suitable provisions tor tlie sup- 
port and lUiiintenanue of a system of public schools 
tor the Knituitous iostruction of all tho iahabitants 
of the State beiweeu tho ages of six and sixteen 
years." 

The same article provides that the Legisla- 
ture shall, from time to time, as may be neces- 
sary, invest the principal of the public school 
fund in tke bonds of the Unied States, and 
in DO other security. The ring of this Repub- 
lican metal is eomewhut different from the 
Democratic provisions for its investment in 
the bonds of railroads, of slave-holding States 
and guarantied bonds, and by this Republican 
constitution one fourth of the ordinary reve- 
nues are set apart for school purposes, and in 
addition thereto one dollar poll-lax on every 
adult male in the State, and the proceeds of 
all individual sales of the public domain. The 
Republican Legislature elected under the con- 
Bliluiion procet'dt-d in good faith to discharge 
tbeir coustiluiional duty — to make suitable 
provisions fur tlie support and maintenance of 
u system of free public schools for all the 
inhabitants of the Stale. 

The available school fund having been wasted 
by the misrule of the Democratic party, it be- 
came necessary to levy a tax to carry out the 
system, and, as has been already stated, there 
never was a single public free-school house 
erected within the limits of the Slate. A la.\ 
ot c>ne per cent., to be levied and collected as 
necessity should demand, was asses.sed upon 
the properly of tho State for the purpose of 
erecting school-houses. At once there arose 
a storm of abuse against the tax and the Re- 
publiuau party, upon which the Democratic 
party achieved a temporary triumph in the laii; 



election, but the sober second thought of the 
people is already reacting on the subject. 

The system has been put into operation in 
various sect ions of the State, and to-day ninety 
thousand children are in attendance upon the 
public free schools, and the demand comes up 
from all parts of the State for more schools 
and more teachers. While tho Democracy 
are holding meetings in a few of the counties 
denouncing the system and refusing to pay 
their tax, and advising their friends not to pay 
the school tax, the report of the superintend- 
ent of education shows that up to the 1st day 
of February, in the counties of Travis, Hayes, 
Bastrois Fayette, Caldwell, Wharton, Colo- 
rado, (ionzales, and Lavaca, there is a total 
of 234 teachers, 180 schools, 9,733 pupils; 
and the cost per capita is $1 48. 

The ordinary expense of a private school 
averages about four dollars and titty cents 
per month for each scholar throughout the 
State, and the saving to the people of the 
Slate in this behalf amounts to at least from 
one hundred and fifty to two hundred per 
cent. Notwithstanding this excellent system, 
within the past two weeks this Democratic 
party who are so anxious to establish a free- 
school system throughout the Slate have 
burned two school houses, one in Hill county, 
and one in Dallas, and since the system was 
first adopted, on the 1st day of September, 
after thirty years of Democratic rule in igno- 
rance, there have been burned in the State 
of Texas at least twenty school-houses ; many 
teachers have been taken out and whipped, 
others have been driven from the country, 
school-houses have been closed up because 
the teachers have had the temerity to attend a 
Republican metting, and this in the Iowa 
of lirenham, in the county of Washington, 
one of the most enlightened and wealthy coun- 
ties in the State. The determined, bitter 
oi>po8ition to the school system by the Dem- 
ocratic party of the Stale of Texas, however, 
will be of no avail. 

The people who have been kept in ignorance 
so many years are beginning to realize the 
necessary results flowing from a common- 
school system, and they are beginning to look 
with suspicion upon the men whom they have 
followed in years gone by. They find the same 
men who led them into secession, who preached 
the war of the rebellion, now the leaders in 
all tax payers' conventions, the leaders in all 
attempts to resist the payment of the Uxes, 
anil they stand at the head of every opposition 
to every measure having the education and the 
prosperity of the people at heart. 

The p**ople are realizing the folly of seces- 
sion, of Democratic ideas of intellectual devel- 
opment, which mainly consist in learning to 
whine a mournful ditty concerning the " lost 
oaiisp,"' to ride a vicioiis mu.«tanj:, to punch at 
a ring wi:h a bean-pole, and to curse at mea 



6 



who are born outside the pale of their chivalric 
civilization. 

Here in Washington we are politely called 
"non-resident partisan officials." In Texas 
we are denounced as carpet-baggers, while 
the native Unionist is disposed of as a scala- 
wag or a nigger. 

There has always existed in the South a 
class of people highly educated, of superior 
cultivation, consisting of the old slaveholding 
aristocracy; and tliis class has ever held un- 
disputed control of the government of the 
Stales of that section, and has given shape 
and tone to their legislative enactments. This 
class had the means to educate their children 
and did educate them, generally in northern 
schools and colleges, but this education was 
based on the assumption, taught as the dogma 
of religion from the pulpit, that the slavery 
of the African was a divine institution. 

There was also another class contemptu- 
ously termed by the aristocracy " white trash," 
which formed a large body of the people, who 
were studiously deprived by legislative enact- 
ments, such as those of Texas, from all bene- 
fits of common free schools. This policy was 
necessary to sustain the system of slavery, for 
with education came inquiry, investigation, 
increase of wealth, political power, and study 
of the science of political economy and the 
rights of men, and the institution of slavery 
could not stand the test of this crucible. 

Also there existed a large class of unedu- 
cated people. To this class there has been 
added the mass of the untutored blacks, by 
their emancipation and enfranchisement. No 
one can possibly understand the danger of this 
large class of ignorant people in. the body- 
poiiiic belter than persons, like myself, who 
have had opportunity to study the two civil- 
izations. North and South. No party can un- 
derstand it better than the Republican party. 
Ii is to avoid the evil which must necessarily 
flow from this condition of affairs that the 
Republican party of the country and of the 
States where it exists are so earnest in the 
effort to change it by the establishment, not 
only of State systems of education, but of a 
national one also. 

The ruling class of the South has hereto- 
fore prevented, through the organization of 
the Democratic party, the education of even a 
portion of their white citizens, and would still 
prevent all education of blnck men. They 
resent the enfranchisement of the black man 
as an attempt to raise him to a social equal- 
ity with themselves. They cannot or will not 
realize the fact that this enfranchisement was 
an absolute necessity in our form of govern- 
ment, which is based upon the fundamental 
principle that all men are created equal, and 
that under this democratic rule there cannot 
exist in this country a whole race of pariahs 
in our political fabric. They oppose the edu- 



cation of the black man upon the same pretext 
of social equality, and would prefer no t^chools 
at all rather than submit to such degradation 
under the forms of law. 

It is by such appeals to the passions of 
uneducated white people of the South that we 
are cursed with that brutal form of the organ- 
ization of the Democratic party denominated 
the Ku Klux Klan, and that sort which rather 
conducts a congressional canvass by personal 
assault upon a political opponent than by an 
appeal to the intelligence and good judgment of 
the people. We, on the other hand, believe 
that the education of the people, white and 
black, will prevent the possibility of such 
political organizations, teach them to exercise 
their political rights correctly, and also their 
relative privileges and duties toward each 
other, which shall prevent all danger from the 
evils that are predicted on account of social 
intercourse, which, in all educated and well- 
regulated communities, is arranged by the in- 
dividual members to suit themselves. 

These remarks are not foreign to the subject 
presented in the bill for the sale of a portion 
of Texas territory, for one of the strong rea- 
sons for the passage of that measure is that it 
will immediately place under the control of the 
State an available fund with which to begin at 
once, and carry out to a successful accomplish- 
ment, a system of public free schools for the 
education of all classes of our people, whose 
ignorance is always a menace, the danger from 
which increases the longer itcontinues toexist. 
It has been shown that the fund cannot be 
wasted, for our constitution provides that the 
school fund shall be invested in United States 
bonds and in no other securities, and it is thus 
protected from the hands of the spoiler, from 
investments in railroads, slaveholding bonds, 
or indorsed bonds, under any and all of which 
Democratic provisions it could be plundered 
and wasted like the five millions plundered 
and wasted by the Democracy in the past. On 
the other hand, the purchase of this territory 
by the United States would at a trifling cost 
add at least sixty million acres of land to the 
public domain, and enlarge the national edu- 
cational fund by the addition of a territory 
equal in extent to the great States of Missouri 
and Indiana, and capable of sustaining an 
equal population with those States. 

Another reason is that this territory may be 
saved to this noble and humane endowment 
by the purchase. All experience teaches that 
where the General Government has parted 
with its right of eminent domnin in any of the 
public lands by cessions to the States, these 
lands have passed into the hands of private 
persons and corporations for purposes of spec- 
ulation. The Commissioner of the General 
Land Office reports that the swamp landa 
ceded to the difTeroni States in which they are 
situated have thus been disposed of wiLbout 



realizing any of the benefits intended by the 
grant. Tlie land scrip given to the States for 
agricoltunil colleges has been generally sold 
for cash by the States, and in this matiner 
immense areas of the public domain liave 
passed into the hands of land speculators, 
who locate this scrip on the very best vacant 
lands of the country and then hold them at 
high prices, which they are generally enabled 
to obtain by means of internal improvements 
for which these speculators obtain national or 
State aid to their own pront. These facts 
offer tlip most convincing arguments why the 
General Government, in the mana'jement of 
the national educational fund, should preset ibe 
the conditions and retain the coritrol of the 
fund to the uses for which it is intended, and 
not leave it, especially in the South, to the 
mercy of the Democratic party, should that 
party obtain control, whose policy is a pauper 
school lor the poor white man and no school 
at all for the black man. And what is true 
of the other States is true of Texas; if the 
territory is retained, it will be frittered away 
and (inally pass into the hands of speculators, 
to the detriment of the best interests of the 
State and country. 

I come now to my second proposition, the 
advantages accruing to the Indian policy in 
the acquisition of this territory by the United 
States. 

A portion of the territory included in the 
joint resolution lies north of Red river and 
between New Mexico and the Indian territory 
of the civilized tribes of the Creeks, Choctaws, 
and Cherokees. This country is called the 
Pan- Handle in Te.xas. Through the Pan- 
Handle, the Red river and the north and 
Bouih forks of the Canadian meander with 
their tributaries, and between these waters are 
piled up the pyramidal peaks of a portion of 
the range of the Wichita mountains. The fol- 
lowing description of this Wichita country is 
taken from an article in the Galaxy, written 
by General Custer, called " Life on the Plains:' 

"Approaching the Wichita mountains from the 
noith. and after the eye has perhaps been wearied 
by tiie lameness and monotony of the unbroken 
I>lains,ono is gladdened by the relief which the sight 
of these pieturesqueuud peculiarly beautiful mount- 
ains affords. 

"Hero are to be seen all the varied colors which 
Bicrstiidt and Church endeavor to represent in their 
mountain scenery. A journey across or around them 
on fo<it and upon hors'-back will well repay either 
the tourist or artist. The air is pure and fragrant, 
and as exhilurnting as the purest wine; tho climate 
cnlriincinglv mild; tho sky clear, and blue as the 
most beituliful sapphire, with here and tirero clouds 
of iho rarest loveliness, presenting to the cyo the 
richest commingling of colors. Delightful odors nre 
being constantly wiifted by; while tho lorcsts, filled 
with the mocking-bird, the colibri, the humming- 
bird, und the thrush, constantly put forth a jo^lul 
chorus, and all combine to fill tho soul with visions 
of delight, and enhance tho glory and perfection of 
creation. 

"IWilike most mountains, the Wichita cannot 
properly be termrd a range or chain, but more cor- 
rectly a colleoiion or (roup, aa many of Ibe highest 



and most beautiful are detached, and stand on a 
level plain 'solitary and alone.' They are conical 
in shape, and appear to have but little resemblanco 
to the soil upon which they are founded. From the 
foot of almost every mountain pours a stream of 
limiiid water of almost icy coldness." 

This territory, rich as is \U soil and beau- 
tiful as is its scenery, has not attracted the 
attention of white settlers from the fact that 
it is hemmed in on the one side by the In- 
dians of the Choctaw, Cret-k, and Cherokee 
tribes on the east, and the Hispano- Indian 
population of New Mexico on the west. And 
tor this reason it will be many years before it 
will be settled by the white race, if it is ever 
settled by any other class than the wild bor- 
derers, whose occupation of it, so far as the 
people of Texas are concerned, would be as 
little desirable as its present occupancy by the 
wild Indians of the plains, who now make it 
their home and hiding place, whence they raid 
upon the Texas Ironiier. 

For these reasons its sale to the United 
States for the purpose of an In<iian reserva- 
tion would be a solid gain to the people of 
J'exas, not only on account of the betiefits 
which would flow to the S'ate by the imme- 
diate use of the purchase-money to build up 
free schools, but because its transfer to the 
United States as a reservation would bring 
these wild tribes under the subjection of the 
Army and the influence of the civilization of 
their brothers of the Indian territory and their 
half-brothers of New Mexico, and thus relieve 
the people of Texas from the annoyances of 
their predatory raids, which will continue to 
harass them until these nomadic tribes are 
placed upon reservations and compelled to 
remain on them. The advantages of settling 
the Indians into a compact territory need no 
argument in their support. The policy of 
placing them on reservations is the adopted 
policy of the country, and the Indian must 
conform "to the demands of advancing civil- 
ization and become fixed to the soil, or he 
must suffer the inevitable fate of extermin- 
ation. 

The joint resolution for the sale of the ter- 
ritory provides that while one half the pur- 
chase money shall be paid into the treasury 
of the State to form a part of the public free- 
school fund, in accordance with i.s constitu- 
tion, the other half shall be retained in the 
United States Treasury to secure any indebt- 
edness already created by the laws of Texas. 
This provision follows the precedent in the 
sale of the Santa Ffi territory to the United 
States. By the articles of annexation all the 
public domain of the republic of Texas was 
to remain the property of the State, and the 
State was to pay the public debt of the repub- 
lic. But the creditors of the republic con- 
tended that the Government of the United 
Slates, by annexing Texas and absorbing the 
public revenues derived by tariffs and taxar 



8 



tion, had rendered itself liable for the public 
debt. Hence that provision in the act for the 
purchase of Santa F6. 

ASSAULTS OF TUE DKMOCBACT UPON THE REPUBLICAN 
PAKTY IN TEXAS. 

The Democratic party of the United States 
has declared that the reconstruction laws of 
Congress are absolutely "unconstitutional, 
null and void," and that the governments 
erected in the States lately in rebellion by 
those laws were forced upon the people of the 
South ; that they are not in justice or equity 
bound by the acts of such governments, but 
that all obligations contracted by them are 
chargeable against the Government which 
inaugurated and forced them upon the rebel 
States. Hence, the innocent purchasers of 
the obligations of these governments might 
plead the .same plea of the public creditors of 
the republic of Texas, and as the Democracy 
of the South announce that they intend to 
recover the control of the southern States, 
and, through the electoral votes of those 
States, to recover the control of the national 
Government, the necessity of the provision 
retaining a part of the purchase- money in the 
United States Treasury becomes apparent. 

The actual and present debt of the State 
of Texas is but a trifling affair compared with 
the resources of the State, not amounting to 
more tban about half a million dollars. But 
the last Legislature has jirovided for a pros- 
pective debt of $12,000,000 by the passage of 
laws in aid of the construction of railroads. 
The wisdom of tho.se laws is not pertinent to 
the present discussion; but their passage has 
given rise to the charge of corruption against 
the Republican members of the Legislature, 
and of the Republican party in the State.^ 
They were, with but one exception, vetoed by 
the llepublieiiu Governor of the State, and his 
vetoes were sustained by a respectable num- 
ber of the Republican members of the Legis- 
lature. The Democratic member.-J, with per- 
haps three exceptions, vottd for ail these sub- 
sidies. It was in the power of the Democratic 
members to d^ ieat all such legislation by sus- 
taining the policy of the Governor, but they 
voted to carry the bills over his vetoes and to 
enact them into laws. And yet these unadul- 
terated aud immaculate gentlemen are the 
very men who charge the Republicans with 
corruption ! This charge of corruption is even 
made by those who have been proven to have 
been engaged in the efloit to bribe members 
of the Lcj^islature, which efforts failed of suc- 
cess. 

Another Democratic charge against the Re- 
publican party in Texas U based upon the high 
taxes that have been levied upon the people. 
That the cost of government is higher now 
than before the war is equally true of the State 
as it is of the nation, and of all the other 
States. It must be recollected that there was 



practically nine years of interregnum in the 
regular civil government and the courts of 
the State, extending from 1860 to 1869 inclu- 
sive. A change was made in the judiciary 
system of the State by the present constitu- 
tion, increasing the number of judges to clear 
the dockets of nine years of accumulated liti- 
gation. A registration of voters was also 
required, which increased the cost of govern- 
ment. 

It is unnecessary to cite every cause ; these 
are sufficient to show the necessarily increased 
expenditures. Before the war the Democratic 
party conducted the government by means of 
the millions in the Treasury from the sale of 
the Santa F6 territory, and the levies for the 
ordinary expenditures were light and unfelt 
by the people. But these millions were wasted 
by the misrule of the Democratic party, and 
no longer exist. The present tax laws pro- 
vide for a levy of fifty cents ad valorem on the 
hundred dollars of property, and the assess- 
ment of certain license taxes to support the 
ordinary expenses of the State government. 
!i There were also changes in the constitution 
in regard to the working of roads under which 
twenty-five cents on the hundred dollars of 
property is levied as a road tax, which, with 
other twenty five cents on the hundred dol- 
lars of property, or one half the State tax for 
ordinary county purposes, paying jurors, &c., 
make the county tax equal to the ad valorem 
State tax. 

In addition to thisaschool tax of one fourth 
the amount of the ad valorem State tax is 
levied, and five cents on the hundred dollars 
as a frontier bond tax, making a total of one 
dollar and seventeen and a half cents for State 
und county purposes on the hundred dollars 
of property. The Legislature at its last session 
found that the levies for county purposes were 
excessive, and they were reduced, so that the 
present State and county taxes amount to only 
about eighty cents on the hundred dollars. 
But the Democracy never mention this reduc- 
tion. Besides these taxes, a levy of one per 
cent, was authorized for the i)urpose of build- 
ing school-houses, which tax is to be assessed 
and collected quarterly, or as they may be 
needed for the purpose fixed by law. This is 
the tax which has caused the mijihiy upheaval 
of the Texas Democracy. Building "nigger 
school-houses ' is a little too much for their 
sensibilities. It was the featlier which broke 
the camel's back of their long endurance and 
patience under the wrongs and oppressions 
of the northern vandals and carpet-baggers. 
This proscribed class has to bear the burden, 
although it is a historical fact that only about 
one tenth of the members of the last Legis- 
lature arc northern men, the other nine tenths 
being "old Texans," coeval wiih the bowie- 
knife and six-shooter in that State. 

The ad valorem tax of the State is exactly 



9 



the same as that levied by the rebel Demo- 
cratic Legislature of Texas in the year 18*J:{, 
while the present license taxes are much 
lighter tlian those of 1863. Besides the Stale 
and county taxes levied by the rebel Demo- 
cratic Legislatures during the war, the govern- 
ment of the confederate States levied direct 
tiixesupoii the people of Texas, which, accord- 
ing to the final report of George Durham, the 
confederate tax collector, amounted to about 
thirty-seven million dollars for the four years 
of the war, or over nine million dollars per 
annum. In addition to this enormous levy, 
another tax in kind of ten per cent, on the 
productions of the State was assessed and 
rigidly collected. Upon the cotton, the corn, 
the pigs, the potatoes, the poultry, and upon 
every article produced this lax was enforced. 
And the^e taxes were paid promptly, if not 
cheerfully, because the object of them was to 
brrak down and destroy the Government es- 
tablished by the statesmen of the Revolution. 
But now the necessary taxes to carry on the 
ordinary expenses of government, and to build 
school-houses, are denounced as oppressions 
sufficient almost to justify a new rebellion. 
So much for Democratic consistency. 

This discussion necessarily grows out of the 
proposition to sell our vacant and unappro- 
priated public domain, as one of the reasons 
for the sale is to enable the State to carry on 
its system of public free schools without the 
necessity of a resort to taxation, so shocking to 
the whole nervous frame-work of the pauper- 
achool Democracy. And the comparisons 
which have been instituted afford a full vindi- 
cation of the integrity of the Republican party 
of Texas against the assaults of those enemies 
alike to that party, to frep government, and the 
cause of public free schools for i he education of 
the whole peofde of the State without regard to 
race or color. Tiie pauper-school Democracy 
opposes the establishment of a national educa- 
tion fund because there is no authority in the 
Consiituticm to authorize it. Neither is there 
any authority therein for the acquisition of 
territory, yet to this settled principle of Amer- 
ican public law this nation is indebted for its 
character and standing as one of the greatest 
Powers of the earth. 

QUESTION OF DIVISION AND STATK RI0HT3 SKTTLKD. 

Tlie joint resolution contains one other pro- 
vision which demandsconsideration before clos- 
ing the discussion for the present. It provides 
for the repeal of the articles of anne.vation of 
the rcpui)lic of Texas, which gives the State of 
Texa.", with the assent of Congress, the right 
to form four new Stales out of its territory in 
addition to the present State. This provision 
was inserted in the articles of annexation in 
the interest of slavery by tliu preservaiion of 
the political equality of llic sLnve with the free 
States in the United Siuti's Senat*-. It has 
always been held iu Texas and the South, 



especially by the politicians of the State- rights 
school, ihat this right was guarantied to the 
State by the treaty of anne.xation ; a right to be 
exercised solely at the discretion of the people 
of Texas, the assent of llie United States being a 
mere Ibrmalily tocom{ily with the constitutional 
forms in regard to the formation of new Stales 
out of the territory of existing States, the as- 
sent to this mere formality being secured by 
the treaty of annexation, and binding on the 
public conscience of the nation without regard 
to any other consideration than the wishes of 
the people of Texas. This is the generally 
received doctrine and interpretation of the arti- 
cles of annexation by the people of the State. 
So long, therefore, as it exists it is a menace 
to the public peace of the country, and may at 
any time involve the question of civil wnr. 

Let us suppose, ("or instance, that, the Dem- 
ocratic parly, recruited by soreheads and dis- 
contents from the Republican ranks, shotild 
carry the election of a majority of the Legis- 
latures of the northern States sufficient to elect 
enough United States Senators of the outgoing 
classes of 1873 and 1875 to give that party a 
bare majority in the United States Senate, and 
that the Republican party, in view of the loss 
of the Senate, should use those means and ap- 
pliances, which are always in the hands of a 
party in actual control of the Government, to 
ionn four new Slates out of the territory of 
Texas and procure the election of eight new 
Republican Senators, which would result in 
that party retaining its control of the Senate, 
who does not know that such a result would 
convulse the nation and precipitate anew the 
horrors of civil war? And what impartial citi- 
zen would not decide that in such an event the 
Democratic party would have right and justice 
on its side? The Democratic party has already 
plunged the country into one civil war. The 
impartiiil pen of history will record that the late 
rebellion was wiiliout justifiable cause ; for all 
civilization and humanity itself revolted against 
the etlbrtsof the Democratic party to establish 
at Richmond a government based upon the cor- 
ner-stone of the perpetual bondage of a part 
of the human race, and the allegation of Dem- 
ocratic journals, that " the cause of civil liberty 
was buried under the apple tree at Appomat- 
to.x," will be so changed upon the paj;es of liis- 
tory as to read that " the cause of human slavery 
was then and there buried, never to resurrect.'' 
But should any parly ever attempt to control 
this Government by such an usurpation of 
power as the one supposed, then that party 
would be execrated in history even more than 
the late rebellton, which had at least the merit 
of an attempt to fr.iine a government upon the 
ancient basis of a landed and patriarchal aris- 
tocracy, and which was adorneij arid illutirated 
by a heroic devotijii and self-sacrilice whicli 
will shed luster upon the character of the 
American people, and which will live forever 



10 



, 



in poetry and song equally with the 6rm courage 
and heroic deeds of ihe victors in llie concest. 
The repeal of this stipulation is therefore a 
measure of public safety, demanding the care- 
ful consideration of the country. The over- 
ture comes properly from the General Gov- 
ernment, and it should be a generous and a 
just one to put aside this apple of discord, and j 
to restore fully and completely the harmony 
which should exist between the States and 
the people. It is in this spirit that it has ! 
been presented for the consideration of Con- 
gress, and that all subjects of ditTerence may 
be discarded, and that peace and happiness 
may be restored to the country, which should 
be the aspiration of every patriotic heart. 

DKMOCUATIC AND REPUBLICAN TAXATION COMPARED. 

It has been staled that the ad valorem tax 
of one half of one per cent, levied by the Re- 
publican Legislature ia the same as that levied 
by the rebel Democratic Legislature of 1863, 
which is true, with this exception in favor of 
the Republican levy, that it does not touch capi 
tal or agricultural productions. The act of 
the rebel Democratic Legislature, approved 
March 6, 1808, provides that "there shall 
be levied and collected for the use of the 
State an annual direct ad valorem tax of fifty 
cents upon each $100 value of properly, real 
and personal, including all cotton, flour, corn, 
and ail other products of the soil not in the 
hands of the producer," &c. ; which levy, by the 
act approved December 16, 1863, was extended 
as follows: 

" A tax of one half of one per cent, shall bo levied 
and collected, in kind, un all ispeciu, treasury notes 
of the confederate States of America, treasury war- 
rants of the State of Texas, and bank notes held or 
owned within the State ; and all foreign bills of en- 
chango and certificates of deposit, and other evi- 
dences of money beintc deposited or credited, beyond 
the limits of this State, owned by i>ersons residing 
therein, shall be considered as specie, and thereon 
shall be levied and collected a tax of one half of one 
per cent, in specie." 

The rebel Democratic levies of the ad 
valorem taxes could not have less than twice 
the percentage of the present Republican tax, 
and would amount to probably thrice the per 
cent. .So much for the Slate taxes. 

The county taxes levied by the rebel Demo- 
cratic Legislatures were even more in excess 
over the present taxes than the State leviesi. 
Under the acts above cited the counties were 
authorized to levy one half the amount of the 
State taxes for county purposes. By an act 
approved January 1, 1862, the county courts 
of the several counties were authorized to levy 
a special tax for war purposes on all property 
subject to taxation by the .State, as follows: 

"That the county courts of the several counties 
in this State shall have power to levy and cause the 
assessment and collection of a special, direct ad 
valorfin tax on all property sulyect to taxation by 
the Slate, of not exceeding twenty-five cents on eai^h 
hundred dollars in value of property, which shall bo 
called a war tax, and the same shalT be assessed and 



collected by the assessor and collector of the various 
counties," ke. 

In addition to these taxes, which amounted 
to as much as the present levies, by another 
act approved March 6, 1863, to provide the 
necessary assistance for families and other 
dependents of officers and soldiers, the county 
courts were authorized to " raise funds there- 
for by extraordinary taxation, as may be 
proper to supply necessary assistance," <tc., 
which provision was limited by act approved 
December 16, 1863, as follows: 

" Ancl the aijBre^ate of taxes so collected in each 
year shall not exceed the raxa of one dollar on each 
hundred dollars of the assessm^snt, and in the col- 
lection of such taxes the county courts may make 
any practicable arrangements for receiving payment 
in other articles than money, so as to promote the 
assistance herein provided for." 

This made it in effect a tax in kind like the 
ten per cent, confederate war tax. This one 
per cent, tax is exactly the amount levied by 
the Republican Legislature for the purpose of 
builiiing school-houses. "Oh! but," say my 
rebel Democratic friends. " this wasaholy tax 
to support the families of soldiers in the field 
' fighting for their country.' " To this it is a 
sutticient answer to say that the cause of edu- 
cation is as holy as that of rebellion. The 
Republicans of Texas are perfectly prepared 
to compare records with the rebel Democracy 
on the suliject of taxation. 

But even these ordinary, special, and ex- 
traordinary levies were insufficient, and a 
public debt was created, amounting to many 
million dollars, in the shape of treasury war- 
rants. This debt was classified as the military 
and the civil service debt, the former for the 
support of troops " figh'ing for their coun- 
try," the latter to pay the civil officers ol the 
.State who were in office at home and busily 
engaged in sending all their wives' relations 
to the war. The Democratic constitutional 
convention of 1866, under the " my-policy " 
programme, wanted to saddle the whole of 
this debt on the State, and were only prevented 
from doing so by fear of the consequences. 
Many of the members urged the payment of 
the civil service debt as a matter of high 
honor, among them the gentleman from the 
fourth district of I'exas, [.Mr. Haxcock.] As 
a legislative job this attempt will compare not 
over favorably with the measures adopted by 
the Republican Legislature to encourage the 
construction of works of internal improve- 
ment, upon which are based the charges of 
corruption against that body, which, if true, 
it has already been shown bear more heavily 
upon the pauper-school Democrats than upon 
the free-school Republicans. 

The various acts authorizing and cre.ating 
these debts are too voluminous to quote in 
full, and only a few specimens will be pre- 
sented. Under the " act to raise $2,000,000, 
or so much thereof as may be necessary, by 



11 



the sale of cotton bonds, to provide for the 
defense of the State, and to repel invasion," 
&c., approved December 10, 18G:5, it was 
provided — 

"Tlidt the Governor of the Stnte of Texas be, and 
he is hereby, .lutliorizeil to sell, or have sold, the 
bonds of the State to the amount of $2,ilW,iJ00, or oo 
much of said sum as he may deem neceaaary.to meet 
the purpnsea contemplated by this act." 

On the IGth of December, or six days after 
the passage of the foregoing act, another act 
was passed and approved, '* providing for the 
purchase of cotton by the State to meet the 
payment of the cotton bonds to be issued in 
pursuance of the provisions of" the foregoing- 
cited acu By the first section of the act 
$2,000,000 were appropriated to carry it into 
effect. The second section contains the fol- 
lowing provisions: 

"Skc. 2. Should there not be sufficient funds in 
the treasury of the State to meet the appropriation 
made in the first section of this act, or should tiie 
Governor of the State, in his discretion, deem it 
advisable to use the lands of the State to carry into 
effect the object of this act, in either case the Gov- 
ernor is hereby authorized to execute the bonds of 
the State, payable from six to twelve years after the 
present war between the confederate States of Amer- 
ica and the United States of America, redeemable at 
the plt-asure of the State, for the sum of 32,0l)J.0()0, 
or so much thereof as he may deem necessary, and 
in such sums as he raay consider most suitable, bear- 
ing interest at the rate of seven per cent, per annum 
from the date of their negotiation, payable in specie 
twelve months after the close of said war and semi- 
annually tfae'eafter until the paymentof the princi- 
pal. The said bonds may at any time be canceled 
at the pleasure of the holder by prcsentingsaid bonds 
to the treasurer of the State, who shall pay the face 
value of said bonds in the land scrip of the State at 
the rate of fifty cents per acre." 

Here we have the proposition of the rebel 
Democracy to sell the lands of the State at 
the rate of fifty cents per acre to carry on the 
rebellion, and the price they then fixed upon the 
public domain is fixed upon it in the joint res- 
olution for its sale to the United States in 
order to create an educational fund for the 
education of all the children of the State. 

" Now. infidel. I have thee on the hip." 

A rKW SPKCIMKX9 OK nKMOCRATIC LBOISLATIOJf. 

These Ku Klux forms of the organization 
of the Democratic party in the South and in 
Texas, in which State they are called "Knights 
of the White Camelia," and the "Teutonic 
Band of Brothers," are the legitimate offspring 
and outgrowth of thesystem of slavery, and the 
perverted education of the youth of that snction 
to which it gave rise, and which has been already 
alluded to. The political education was sys- 
tematic, and thoroughly permeated the seces 
sion school by means of a system of " indoc- 
trination," as it wascalled. The great leaders 
of that school would agree upon any principle 
of policy, and it was then impressed upon the 
journalists of the party and the fuglemen of 
the primary organizations, who presented it 
iu the form of resolutions in the primary meet- 



ings ; then it wonld be brought before the State 
conventions, and finally become the platform 
of the party, the ignorant dupes being thus 
flattered with the idea that it sprang from the 
people, and that the leaders were simply car- 
rying out tlieir. voice ; and once adopted it was 
even taught from the pulpit, and became at 
length a part of the religious belief of the com- 
monalty. Slavery was thus taught to be a divine 
institution, and reopening the African slave 
trade a Christian duty. These forms not only 
obtained in the primary meetings, in the con- 
ventions, and the pulpit, but were enacted into 
laws by the Legislature, or declared as prin- 
ciples in joint resolutions. The statute-liooks 
of Texas are full of these, and some of them 
are presented to show the drift of public opin- 
ion and education, and to present an insight 
into the causes which have developed into such 
1 barbarisms as these Democratic Ku Klux or- 
I ganizations. (See various laws, resolutions, 
I &c., contained in the appendix hereto.) 

This mass of secession logic and sanguinary 
laws is but a tithe of that with which the statutes 
of Texas are burdened. It is presented to the 
country because its spirit is that which to-day 
animates the hearts of the secession or rebel 
Democracy of that Slate. The last Democratic 
convention, which assembled at Austin about 
a year since, reannounced the same dogmas of 
government, and denounced the government 
of the State and of the nation in the same set 
phrases as those contained in the resolutions 
of the ninth and tenth Legislatures. The 
speeches of Giddings and Hkrxdox in the late 
congressional canvass might be easily mistaken 
for the resolutions, and the resolutions for the 
speeches, and all together for the daily diatribes 
of the Democratic press of Texas. 

These laws made loyalty to the Government 
a felony, punishable in the penitentiary. They 
not only disfranchised loyal men, but denied 
them the right to hold office, to sit on juries, and 
from taking or holding property. They pro- 
vided that service in a colored regiment should 
subject the officer to the punishment of a felon 
and the private to that of slavery. While the 
resolutions of "proud defiance" and those 
I voting Robert J. Walker a scalawag are as 
I amusing as one of their bean-pole tourna- 
: ments. those upon their theories of govern- 
ment and their hatred to the Yankee express 
their true feelings, even though in that stu- 
I pendons style of which only a citizen of our 

Southern .Si.sters is capable. 
I More than this. The joint resolutions. of 
' the tenth Legislature present official proof 
I that the northern allies of the secession 
Democracy were in treasonable correspond- 
ence in the year It^Ol with the sece.'ision lead- 
ers for the reform of the Constitution of the 
United States, "coupled with the quasi 
pledge" that such amendments to the Consti- 
tution should be made ad would forever guar- 



12 



anty the institution of African slavery in the 
South. The application then so indignantly 
spurned by the rebel Democracy is now ac- 
cepted for the altHitiraent of other political 
ends, but, in the southern mind, for the ultimate 
purpose of restoring the Government to the 
control of the Knights of the Teutonic Band 
and of the White Camelia, whereby the statute- 
books of the nation may be blackened with a 
similar code against loyalty and the integrity 
of the Union. 

To the general indictment on account of the 
onerous taxes and the enormous debt created 
by the rebel Democracy of Texas, another item 
must be added. There were two confederate 
States district courts organized in that State, 
one under Judge Ballinger, the other under 
Judge Devine. These judges appointed a large 
number of receivers for their respective dis- 
tricts. There is an old adage that a receiver 
is as bad as a thief, and this case was no ex- 
ception to the general rule. These receivers 
seized nearly live million dollars' worth of 
personal property of various kinds belonging 
to loyal men North and South, which was duly 
confiscated and sold under decrees of the courts 
of Ballinger and Devine. These fellows are all 
active and clamorous Democratic pulilicians, 
and if there be any one who can denounce a 
carpet-bagger with more force and vigor than 
another, it is one of these judges or one of 
their receivers. They all read the Tribune 
and stand on Frank Blair's platform, and 
know exactly how to abuse carpet-baggers and 
scalawags. 

Mr. Speaker, I have thus, in a too discur- 
sive way, discussed the bill now before this 
Congress. 1 have shown that the interests of 
education, both State and national, demand 
the immediate action of Congress upon the 
proposition; that the policy of the Government 
with regard to the Indians will be best sub- 
served by a compliance with its requirements, 
and thai the old "' bone of contention " which 
has brought such woes upon the South will, 
upon the acceptance by the State of these 
overtures, be buried forever in the tomb of 
the 'Most cause." Truly, "rebellion is a 
sin of witchcraft," and that its black art is 
still at work is exemplified in the fact that the 
moment this proposition, involving so much of 
the future prosperity, happiness, and content- 
ment of the people of Texas, was made known 
every Democratic paper and orator began to 
denounce it and make it a party riuestion. On 
the other hand every sound Union and loyal 
man throughout the State, and every paper 
identified with the party of progress, have given 
the measure a hearty support. 

The issue, then, is made up. The pleadings 
in the case are before the country. The dis- 
tinguished Senator from Texas [Mr. Fi.axa- 
OAN,] indorses the proposition, and it is ap- 
proved by his colleague, [Mr. Hamilton',] 



whose Republican principles are too well 
known to be gainsaid. 

1 have no doubt, Mr. Speaker, that this 
question will enter into the coming presiden- 
tial contest in my State. There will then be 
arrayed on the one side the bitter, determ- 
ined, and unrepentant rebels, who, like the 
Bourbons, forget nothing and learn nothing; 
men whose lips are blistering with treason 
and whose hands are red with the blood of 
Union men ; the masked midnight murderers, 
''Knights of the White Camelia," the "Teu- 
tonic Band of Brothers," the "Sons of the 
South," and members of the "Blue Lodge," 
who, with murder and outrage, social and 
financial ostracism, will attempt to prevent, 
as they have ever done heretofore, the free 
expression of public opinion, and drive from 
the polls every man who has the courage to 
vote for the nominee of the Republican party. 
On the other side there will be arrayed the 
loyal hosts of the South, the original Union 
men, who have learned by their sufferings to 
be strong, by that patience which is bitter, but 
whose fruit is ever sweet, by an endurance 
which is a crowning quality, and the passion 
of great hearts to remain true to the holy 
cause of freedom. Side by side with these 
men will be found thousands of the confeder- 
ate soldiery who, on many a battle-field, proved 
their devotion to the " lost cause," but who 
now, with the same courage with which they 
fought, stand up to defend the integrity of the 
Union and the principles of that party which 
alone guaranties to them a sure, prosperous, 
and honorable future. And with these two 
classes in the South will be identified the 
million voters with their newly found free- 
dom, a part of whose religion is a devotion 
to the martyred Lincoln who issued the order 
of emancipation, and to the leader of the 
Union ani'ies who made that proclamation 
an accomplished fact. These people have 
demanded and ought to enjoy all the rii^hts 
guarantied to every American citizen. The 
amended civil rights bill they know will soon 
become the law of the land, and they are right 
when they insist that it should go band in hand 
with general amnesty. It is unfortunate for 
them that one of their great leaders has placed 
them in a position where their rights could not 
be promptly secured by the adoption of the bill 
in the Senate of the United States. It some- 
times happens in the world's history that there 
are persons who regard their friends as vic- 
tims devoted to their reputation. 

In politics as in warfare the enemy makes 
the mistake of bringing on a general engage- 
ment and wasting his energies before he has 
reached hi.'; interior lines of attack, and thus 
it is in the contest now waged by the enemies 
of the Administration against its chief and his 
friends. Tht; result will be as during the lata 
war. The gentlemen who are now at the 



13 



front endeavoring to break down the Repub- 
lican party will be found well in the rear 
guarding the knapsacks of the boys in blue 
and the boys in gray who, stripped tor the fight, 
in November next, shoulder to shoulder, will 
together win another victory for the old hero 
of the army of the Tennessee. 

This nation is not prepared after the last 
twelve years' history to turnover tliis Govern- 
ment to the control of its enemies. Lessons 
learned by the men of both armies during the 
war are not so easily forgotten. The striplings 
who volunteered on either side and who worked 
up to their strong and vigorous manhood dur- 
ing the terrible scenes in camp and field for 
four years, are not the men to be deceived by 
ambitious politicians who would climb to emi- 
nence by base insinuation and attempts to 
break down the refutation of the man whose 
silence now is as characteristic and will be as 
effective as at Vicksburg, in 1863, when his 
enemies in Washington and in that rebel 
stronghold made an "unconditional sur- 
render." 

I believe the people of this country will 
guard well its own freedom and safety with a 
sublime faith in the perpetuity of the Union ; 
it will cheerfully accept this great controversy 
of the second rebellion now inaugurated by its 
pretended friends and life-long enemies ; that 
it will not degenerate or droop to a fatal decay, 
but under its present vigorous and honest 
administration will cast off the wrinkled skin 
of corruption, outlive the pangs of party con- 
flict, wax young again, and enter the glorious 
ways of truth and virtue, and marcli nobly 
forward to the high destiny decreed for it in 
the eternal providence of God. 

"Methinks I see in my mind a noble and puissant 
nation rousing herself lilte ii strong man after sleep, 
and shaking her invincible loek<; methiuks I see 
her a.s an eagle mewing her mighty youth, and kind- 
ling her undazi^led eyes ut the full mid-day beam; 
purging and unsealing her long-abused sight at the 
fountain itself of heavenly radiance ; while the whole 
noise of timorous and Bockiug birds, with those also 
that luve the twilight, tluitur about amazed at what 
she means, and in their envious gabble would prog- 
nosticate a year of sects and schisms." 



APPENDIX. 

Texas War Leuislation. 

Sedition Ijato. 

CmPTEti LI.— An Act to deflno and punish sedition, 

and til prevent the dangers which may arise from 

per.siins disatfectcd to ihu Stale. 

SkctioX 1. lie it cmtcled l-!J thr L'giihiture of the 
Siafr ut Tf.xnH, That if any person within this .State 
shall raalii'iousjy and advisedly discourage the peo- 
ple from enlisting into the service of this State or 
c<infc'<lerute .States, or dispose the people to favor 
the enemy, every such peroon shall bo deemed guilty 
of ft high misdemeanor, and on conviction thereof 
{■hall ho punished by iinprisiuiment in the peniten- 
tiary for a term of nut less than throe nor more than 
five years, at the discretion ot the jury. 

Approved, January I:!, 1862. 



RctaHalion. 
CuAPTEtt IV.— Joint Resolution. 

lifnolvtd f>]/ the Legijilalure of the Stale of Tfxaa, 
That wo highly approve the promptness with which 
the presiilunt of the confederate States has made 
preparation to retaliate in the event the Lincoln 
Government should execute as pirates any or all 
of the crew of the privateer Savannah, and we ex- 
press the decided opiniim that retaliation should 
be strictly and rigidly practiced by our government 
iu all such cases. 

Jieiolved, That the Governor of this .State transmit 
a copy of this resolution to our members in the con- 
federate congress, and that they lay it before Presi- 
dent Davis. 

Approved, December 9, 1801. 

A Crinit Arrives. 
CuAPTER XL— Joint Resolution. 
Whereas a crisis has arrived which involves the 
civilization, iustiluiious, political and social righta 
of the people of Texas, making it proper and expe- 
dient that the representatives in the Legislature 
should, in the most solemn manner, declare to her 
sister States, composing the confederate States of 
America, and to the world, her settled conviction 
of the wanton injustice of the war now waged again.st 
them by tho northern .States, and of her unfaltering 
determination to cooperate with her si.^ter States in 
prosecuting the war to atriumpbr.nt termination by 
all means and at all hazards; and whereas it is a 
historical fact, known to the nations of Europe, that 
the independence of the thirteen original colonies 
was separately acknowledged, and that these dis- 
tinct sovereignties formed a voluntary Union under 
the name and style of the United States of America; 
while it is a fact known to the people of the United 
States that these Statss neverdid mi-rge thoir sover- 
eignty into the Government of the United States, bat 
that they only delegated to it certain expressed, lim- 
ited and si)ccific powers, while they reserved to them- 
selves the exercise of all other powers not so dele- 
gated, and lest it should be inferred that they had 
parted with the sovereigntv, several States, and Vir- 
ginia among the number, did, along with the act of 
entering the Union, declare theirrightof withdrawal, 
and notwithstanding these decisive facts tho rightis 
denied us, and tho amazing spectacle is presented to 
the world of tho attempt to ignore the sovereignty 
and rights of thirteen States, and by war to subju- 
gate and hold in vassalage ten million people, thus 
seeking to overthrow the fundamental principles 
which underlie tho theory of our government, and 
upon which tho whole system rests, and in the de- 
struction of which there is inseparably joined tho 
submission and overthrow of republicanism : and 
whereas we declare that for tho sake of the Union, 
such as was bequeathed to us by acommou ancestry, 
we have for long years submitted to enormous taxa- 
tion, and to a monopoly of the coasting and fishing 
bounties; but not content with this odious system 
of material robbery, they have sought to rob us of our 
just reputation abroad; and not only so, but through 
misrepresentation we are regarded as the destroyers 
of tho Union, and themselves as politically striving 
to preserve it, when in fact they have long since 
destroyed it, all but in name, and aro to-day willing 
subjectsof a coarse and vulgar des|>otism. iJut not- 
withstanding all this it was not until they denied us 
ccjuality in the Union, and had suf-ceeded by a sec- 
tional war in placing in power a President, and in 
the Halls of Congress a majority, pledged to carry 
out these measures, that the people of the South 
rose ui> in their majesty and accepted tho issue of 
war rather than submit to the disgrace of social 
and political inequality. For many years they havo 
been engaged in making a moral war upon us, and 
now, after thus assailing us and our iustitulions, they 
havi! actually invaded our territory with fire and 
sword, proclaiming in advance the confiscation of 
our property, the appropriation of our homesteads, 
and if possiolo, by m<<an3 of servile ifisurrection, to 



14 



shed the blood of helpless infancy and a?e, having 
already practiced outr;i«;es upon defenseless women 
too iiorrible for utterance; and wbereas we now sol- 
emnly declare that there is no common bond of 
union between the North and South, and further, 
that tliero is no homogeneity either in moral or 
religious sentiment or pursuits; and whereas we 
hereby coneratulate our sister confederate States 
upon the wisdom of our rulers, the skill of our Ren- 
.erals, the valor ot our soldiers, and the general suc- 
cess of our cause, and assure them that the people 
of Texas are even more than ever prepared to de- 
vote their entire and united energies to the success- 
ful prosecution ot the war. waatever proportions it 
may a-^sume or whatever sacrilices it may demand: 
Therefore, 

1. Jienolved, That the people of Texas do hereby 
assure her sister confederate States and the world 
that she stands ready with h»art and hand to resist 
our invaders until their last soldier is driven from 
our borders, and until we shall conquer an honor- 
able and glorious peace. 

2. That we reiterate the declaration that the States 
which composed the United States did not merge 
their sovereignty into that Government, but that I 
they entered into a voluntary compact, and that 
they had the right of their own volition to with- 
draw, and that the attempt bv fire and sword to 
compel them to remain in the Union would, if suc- 
cessi'iil, blot out the sovereignty and existence of the 
seceded States, au4 place iu va^ssalagu ten million 
free people. 

.3. That the southern Stales have, in the extreme 
patience with which they have submitted to o|ipress- 
ive legislation, given indubitable evidence of their 
love for the Union framed by our fathers. 

4. That the pretension of patriotism on the part 
of the North, in waging a war for the Union, is 
an enormous falsehood, and that their sole object | 
in. its preservation is that they may continue to 
plunder the South, and retain the power to render 
us the victims of their avarice. 

5. That the proximate cause of the dissolution 
of the Union was that the North had the power and 
had avowed the determination to deprive the South 
of social and political equality. 

6. That we hold them up before the world, with 
all their pretensions to superior civilization, as 
waging a war so barbarous as to be unknown to 
the warfare of civilized nations, and such as is dis- 
graceful to the era iu which they live. 

7. That wo utterly disclaim all aflinity, all brother- 
hood with them, and that we rejoice that we have 
escaped the coutamiuatLng influence of their base 
fanaticism. 

8. That no overtures of peaceshould be considered 
which do not as an indispensable prerequisite pro- 
pose the recognition of the independence of these 
confederate States, and that any offer on the part of 
the enemy to treat of peace which does not propose 
the recognition of our independence, in advance, 
and to make that recognition the basis of negotia- 
tions, is an insult to our people and government, 
and should bo spurned as such. 

9. That we have unlimited confidence in the wis- 
dom of our president, the skill of our generals, the 
courage of our soldiers, and in the final and glorious 
triumph of our cause. 

lU. That the Governor of this State bo requested 
to forward a copy of these resolutions to each of our 
representatives in congress, and to the Governor 
of each of the confederate States, with a request 
that they be laid before their respective Legisla- 
tures. 

Approved, January 13, 1832. 

Inciting Innurrcclion. 

Chapter XVIII.— An Act to define the offense of 

exciting insurrection of slaves in certain cases, 

and to prescribe the punishment therefor. 

Whereas in the prosecution of the unholy war 

now being waged by the United States iigainst the 

ooufcdcrato Sta\c8 and the people thereof, our ene- 



mies are seeking to bring upon us a servile war, by 
arming our slaves and placini; them in the ranks of 
their armies, a'' well as otherwise, throu'^h the ac- 
tion of their G (vernment and the commissioned 
officers of their armie-i, inciting iusurrectiou and 
insubordination : Th-refore, 

De it eimc'eU, it<\. That it shnll be an offense, to be 
denominated exciting insurrection or in^^ubordina- 
tion of slaves, for any commissioned officer of the 
Army, Navy, or marine service of the Government 
of the United States, during the present war be- 
tween said United .States and I ho con federate States, 
to invade or enter upon, with hostile intent, 'ho ter- 
ritory or soil of this State, or with like intent, to 
enter within the waters of this State. 

Sec. 2. That any person guilty of exciting insur- 
rection or insubordination, as in this a:t defined, 
shall, on conviction thereof, be punished by confine- 
ment in th« penitentiary for not less than five nor 
more than fifteen years. * • » ♦ * 

Approved, March 5, 1863. 

Note. — By the " act to provide agiinst the 
hostile invasion of the State of IVxis by per- 
sons of color," approved March G, 18G3, the 
day following the p.issage of the abo^e act, it 
was enacted tha^ all persons of color who 
sliould invade Te.xas, or lake up arms with the 
troops of the United Stales, should, if t'tfe, 
forfeit their freedom, and if slaves, should be 
returned to their masters; and that all that 
were not reclaimed, together witli those who 
had forfeited their freedom, should be sold at 
public auciion into slavery. Felons and si ives 
were the legal status in Texas of the officers 
and soldiers of the colored troops. 

Di>(f ranch isetnent, d:c. 
Ch.vptkr XVI.— An Act to exclude from ofSce. 
serving on juries, taking or holding property, and 
from the rigiits of suffrage, all persons who take 
the alien oath, leave our country toavi)id the ser- 
vice, or join the enemy, or in anywise give them 
aid and comfort. 

lie it rnnctcd by the Lcginlafiire of the State of 
Texa», That no person, being a resident of the 
State, or of any one of the confederate States, who 
may, during the existing war between the confed- 
erate States and the United States, take the oath 
commonly known as the alien oath, whereby ho 
claims the protection of any foreign Government, a3 
a shield from serving the cause of the confederate 
States in their present struggle ; or who may leave, 
or, having left, remain absent from this State, or 
any of the r.onfederate States, to avoid participa- 
tion in behalf of the confederate States; or wtio 
may join, or, having joined, continues in the Army, 
or service, or employment of the United Slates; or 
who may conceal himself, and thereby avoid service 
in our cause; or who may in anywise give aid 
and comtbrt to the enemy, shall, upon conviction 
thereof before any court of competent jurisdiction, 
take or hold any estate, real, personal or mixed, 
whether by purchase, gif', devise, or dc-ceut, in this 
State, nor hold any office of trust, profit, or honor, 
nor vote at any election, nor serve on iinyjuricsin 
any court within thisState: A'roou/erf. Tli at persons 
who shall prove themselves to be bnnn jli) neutrals 
anil citizens of a friendly Power shall not bo subject 
to the provisions of this act. 

Skc. 2. That the judgment of the court upon the 
verdict of a jury in any one of the causes enumer- 
ated in the preceding section, shall bosutliricnt evi- 
dence of the guilt of the party, in any suit or pro- 
ceeding that may subsequently arise, on any i.'sue 
made, upon any question involved iu the said first 
section. 

Skc. 3. That for the offenses enumerated in the 
first section of this act, the party may be pro-ecuied 
at anytime within five years after the ratifioaiioa 



15 



of a treaty of poaoe between the confederate Stiitcs 
and the United States. 

Skc. 4. Ttiat ibis act take effect from and after its 
passage. 

Approved, March 5, 1S6.3. 

Pay for ILmging Loyal Men, 

CnAPTKR XX.— An actappropriatinginoney todefray 
tho cxpensos incurred lor ralion^ and foniue, or- 
dered by Brigadier General William Hudson, 
twenty-first brigade. Suite troops. 
Whereas about the Ist of October, 1862, it becamo 
known that a secret organization existed in tho 
county of Cooke, and adjoining counties, having for 
its object tho overthrow of this government; and 
whereas the Texas State troops, of tho twenty-first 
brigadn, wore cilled out by Brigadier General Wil- 
liam Hudson, of said brigade; and whereas said 
rebellion has been effeutually crushed, and harmony 
restored in that portion of the State: Thfreforo, 

Be it enacted. »tc.. That the comptroller bo, and 
ho is hereby, required to audit and pay, by his war- 
rants upon the treixsurer, all accounts for forage and 
subsistence of the Texas State troops, tweniy-fin'.t 
brigade, called into service by Brigadier General 
William Hudson, of said brigade, &c. 
Approved, March 5, 1863. 

Note. — The organization referred to in the 
act was that of Union men who were endeav- 
oring to reach the Union lines in Missouri 
to join the command of Colonel Mariin D. 
Hart, formerly a senator in the L^'gi8latu^e 
from nori hern Texas, who had escaped through 
the confederate lines, but who was after- 
wards captured in Arkansas and hung by a 
regiment of which Crump, Sanfley, and other 
noted Democratic politicians in northern 
Texas, were officers. '1 he organization was 
"effectually crushed and harmony restored" 
by hanging over one hundred men, and the 
shooting of many others. It is a historical 
fact that thirty two of these loyal men were 
hung upon a single tree in Cooke county, 
which stands to-day, and is known as the 
Dead Man's Tree. 

V A Beattlu Resolution. 

CoAPTKR VII. — Joint resolution concerning retal- 
iation. 

Renoloed by the LeginUiture of the State of Texas, 
That wo heartily approve of the proclamation of 
tho president of the confederate States to retaliate 
for the iniquities of General Butler, (better known 
as Butler the Be;isf.) in the State of Louisiana, as 
well IIS his retaliation proclamation ag;iinst General 
McNeill, for tho murder of citizens in the State of 
Mi-isouri, and wo trust that retaliation will bo 
strictly and rigidly practiced by our government in 
all such eases of outrage, and wo pledge the people 
of this State to sustain the president of the confed- 
erate States in all his measures of retaliation against 
those who outrage humanity by such an utter dis- 
regard of tho rules of civilized warf>rp. 

IteKolved. That the Governor of this State transmit 
a copy of this resolution to our members of congress, 
and that it bo laid bef re the iircsideut. 

Approved, March 6, 1863. 

A Proud and Scornful Defiance. 
CUAPTKR VI.— Joint Resolution. 
Whereas (ho present war waged by the Govern- 
ment of tho United States upon the govi-rnmont, 
people, and properlyof tho confederate St ite--. is 
■without |)rcc«'<lenl in its atrocious and unchristian 
character: and wheroas tho comparative exemption 
of our own dear State from many of the more dire 



concomitants of war may be construed as a cnnso 
of our unanimity for sustaining our government: 
Thereforo, 

1. lie it enacted liy the Leainlnture of the Slats of 
Tejcan, That now that our |)rcsiimptu>u8 enemy 
trends our soil, in heavy numbers and menacing 
attitude, we bid him a proud and s<<ornful deti inco I 

2. That wo pledgo our sister Slates th:ii in this 
struggle our authorities anii our people will evince 
a patriolistn and endurance as great as the oocasioa 
and as prolonged ivs tho conflict, <&c. 

Approved, December, 16, 1863. 

Robert,/. Walk«r voted " n Scalawag." 
Chapter XII. 

Whereas it is the opinion of ratmy pi^rson*. in and 
out of tho county of Walker, that said county was 
named in honor of one Robert J. Walker, ilien a 
distinguished citizen of the State of Mississippi, and 
who had rendered himself popular with tho peoplo 
of Texas by his warm advocacy of tho annexation 
of Texas to the United Slates; and whereas tho said 
Robert J. Walker, ungr.iteful to tho peoplo who liad 
honored him, and nurtured him into political dis- 
tinction, has deserted that people, ami is now 
leagued with Abraham Lincoln in his vain efforts 
to subjugate tho southern States, now struggling for 
their liberties and independence, thereby rendering 
his name justly odious to the people of Tex:i8 and 
of the confederate States of America; Therefiire. 

j lie it renolvfd, <fcc.. That the county of Walker, 
in this State, be, and the same is hereby, named 
Walker county, in honor of Captain Samuel H. 
Walker, tho distinguished Texas ranger, and that 
hencpfortb no honor shall attach to the name of th« 
said Robert J. Walker, in consequence of a county 
of this State bearing the n.iino ot Walker, <fco. 

Approved, December 16, 1863. 

About Reconstruction — Response of the Secesfion De- 
mocracy to their Northern Allies. 
Chapter I. — Joint resolutions concerning peaoe, 
reooDstructiou, and independence. 

Whereas among the political parties in tho Uni- 
ted States the question of a reunion of those States 
with tiieso of the confederacy is being agitated, and 
in order to promote such reunion it is urged that 
delegates becliosen from eachof theStatesof thecon- 
federacy and in the Union, to meet in convention to 
reform the Constitution of the United Stales, which 
proposition is coupled with the quasi pledgo that 
such amendments shall betnadc lo that CoiistitutioD 
as will forever^ guaranty the institution of African 
slavery in tho Slates of this confederacy ; and where- 
as it is possible that tho political party in llie Uni- 
ted States advocatii.g that proposition may prevail 
at the approaching election in choosing the Execu- 
tive of that GtivcrnmenI, and that consequently the 
foregoing proposition may bo attempted to bo made 
to tho States of the coufederccy : Now we, of tho 
Slate of Texas, believing ihat it is proper to meet 
such proposition in advance, have resolved as fol- 
lows: 

Resolution 1. That neither tho above proposition 
nor any other can bo made to the peoplo of this 
State by tho United States or any foreign ticople. 
the government of tho confederate Slates being 
the only organ of the Slates in the confederacy for 
tho trans iction of bu-^iness with foreign nations, 
and such proposition, if made :it all, must be made 
to the govcrninenl of tho confederate Stales, and if 
m ido to tho government of this State will not be 
entertained. 

Resolu'ion2. That we rccogniz<»in that propot<ition 
no good fiith, but merely an insidious p>i|ioy to 
"divide arul conquer." a policy through which it is 
hoped lo detach some of the States of the confeder- 
acy, thereby to weaken and demoralize the rest. To 
accomt>lish this an appeal is made to our love of 
property, which, as it is the nil-prevailing motivo 
lo the action of tho people of tho North, they Mip 
potted would control our conduct. 



16 



Re»olution 3. That it will be well for the people of 
the North to understand, even at this) late day. that 
the southern States did not secede from the Union 
upon any que-Jlion such as the mere preservation of 
the slave property of their citizens, but that, being 
free and sovereign Stales, they were resolved to 
preserve their freedom and their sovereignty; they 
were free to govern themselves as they, and not 
others, saw fit. They were free to change their gov- 
ernment, to erect a new one, and to make whatever 
alliances they should choose. And after nearly four 
years of arduous war these States are still unwaver- 
ing in their resolution to preserve their freedom 
and their sovereignty, without which all else is 
valueless. 

lietoliition 4. That could the present war and all 
its horrors be blotted out of our memories, our pa-^t 
experience while in the Union would warn us from 
any reunion with the people of the North. A written 
Constitution, adopted by our ancestors and theirs, 
which contained plainly-worded guarantees of the 
rights of all, was by them and theirsworn represent- 
atives deliberately and persistently violated to our 
injury, and finally, after years of discussion, when 
the question was understandingly before the people 
at large, they elected a Chief Magistrate with the 
purpose that he should destroy our liberties in dis- 
regard of the Constitution which ho had sworn to 
support, thus f.xhibitiug a radical and widespread 
national depravity, to the honor of human nature, 
never exhibited in the world before. 

Reiolutionb, Ijut wo could not, if wo would, ban- 
ish from our memories the inhumanities of this war. 
Our enemies have reimdiated every principle of civ- 
ilized warfare. They have withdrawn their felons 
from jails and penitentiaries, have recruited from 
the scum of Europe, and armed our own slaves, in 
order to procure an army sutBcienaly atrocious for 
tlieir purpose; and this army has been launched 
upon us with the declared object of our extermina- 
tion. Poisoned weapons have been manufactured 
and used; exchange of prisoners has been refused 
until the success of our arms extorted a cartel, and 
the terms of this has been violated by them when- 
ever the varying fortunes of tho field maile it appar- 
ently advantageous to do so. Ourcountrymen when 
captured have been removod to rigorous climes and 
subjected to every hardship that thus they miglu be 
destroyed. Non-combatants have been murdered. 
ln<liscriminate onslaught has been made upon totter- 
ing age and tender youth. Uurchaste and defenseless 
Women have been subjected to outrage worse than 
death. Peaceful villages have been burned, and 
happy homes plundered and burned. Whole popula- 
tions have boon removed and bondaged to northern 
masters. Desolation has marched with their armies. 
Ueligioua services have been prohibited; ministers 
of the gospel of peace have been incarcerated and 
eilencod, and sacrilegious hands have been laid upon 
our sacred altars. Lying to themselves, and pre- 
tending to the rest of the world that they are fight- 
ing the battles of freedonj for four million hapi)y 
and contented negroes, they are attempting the en- 
slavement of eight million freemen. With devilish 
mockery of philanthropy, they have deluded and 
dragged these negroes from their comfortable homes 
to use them as screens from our weapons in the day 
of battle, and they have sent them by thousands to 

\i linlul deaths by neglect, exposure, and starvation. 
Vords cannot express the malignity in their hearts, 
or the atrocity of their do'ds, exceeding, as they 
do, all that was ever conceived by men, from the 
ficythian down to the Comanche. Nor has this 
been the conduct of an unbridleil soldiery merely. 
Those officers of their army who have surpa.-<scd the 
rest of the infamous in infamy, h.ive been rewaided 
with promotion by their Govrriimont. Nor has 
their (Jovernment b^en alone in identifying itself 
With their crimes. The peoi.leof the North have 
never failed, when the opportunity was presented, 
to render ovations to the most transcendent among 
the criminals, while their prcs.'< has been constant 
in its laudation, and their orators and preachers 
liavo cried out "Well done.'' Army, UoverumeuU 



and people have united to make the name of Yankee, 
suggestive as it was before of fraud, now thesyuonym 
of barbarism and baseness. 

Resolutiunf). By the just pride of the manhood and 
the virtue which we claim as individuals and as a 
people; by the divine command which warns us not 
to walk in the way with the wicked ; by the memory 
of our murdered dead ; by the sight of the bereaved 
mothers, widows, sisters, daughters, and orphans in 
our land; by the heart-brokenness of trampled vir- 
tue, and by our desolated hearths, we are forbidden 
to admit a thought of further association with the 
people of the North. Our heroic soldiers, the living 
and the martyred dead, forbid it; and our trust in 
God forbids it. 

lieuo/iuion 7. We declare that we earnestly desire 
peace, but we say no less distinctly that it must be 
coupled with our independence. And if the people 
of the United States be really disposed to terminate 
the war, they will best prove that disposition by 
making their propositions to the government of the 
confederate States, which alone can entertain it. 

Approved, November 12, 18ti-l. 

TEXAS POUTICS. 

Mr. CLARK, of Texas. I now propose to 
occupy the remainder of my time in making 
what is culled a personal e.xpianatioa. The 
gentleman from Kentucky [Mr. Beck] and 
my colleagues [Mr. Hancock and Mr. Con- 
ner] are now in their seats, and I will now 
submit the few remarks that I endeavored to 
get an opportunity to make yesterday, when 
there were present more persons whom I 
would be glad to hear what 1 desire to say. 

When 1 sought the floor day before yester- 
day to introduce a resolution in the way of a 
personal explanation, the gentleman from 
Kentucky, [Mr. Beck,] to whom my remarks 
would have been directed, was not in his seat. 
I therefore declined to make any remarks at 
that time. I told the gentle;Dau afterward 
that on yesterday I would seek an oppor- 
tunity to suljtnit my remarks to the House. 
There was objection made, because my col- 
leagues on the other side of the House were 
not present. I am satisfied, Mr. Speaker, 
that if the gentleman who objected yesterday 
to my remarks had understood the nature of 
them, he would not have made any objection. 

But I have sought this opportunity to place 
myself right before this House and before the 
country in a matter which 1 believe involves 
the character and integrity of the Governor of 
my State. It is well known to the House that 
ever since I took my seat on this floor I have 
been personally attacked by various journals 
of the country ; but I have never replied. For 
nearly tiiree years now I have been a member 
of this House, and I never had one bitter word 
of contest with any member here. I have been 
treated Iiere with unilorm courtesy and kind- 
ness, and as I am about to leave for my hotne 
to go on with the contest which I am com- 
pelled to make to retain ray seat, I thought it 
was my right and my duty to put myself in a 
proper attitude before my friends in this House 
and the people of the country. 

Now, sir, there were charges made against 



17 



the Governor of my State in connection with 
myself. Charges of that kind a^ipeared in the 
New York Tribune, the Evening Post, the Sun, 
as well as in the Patriot of this city, and vari- 
ous other Democratic papers of the country. 
I kept perfectly quiet. I said not one word. 
I waited for time which ''makes all things 
even." 

Now, sir, the dispatches from Texas having 
shown that the Governor of ray State was 
indicted because of certain conduct toward 
myself, I sond to the Clerk's desk to be read 
extracts, not only from Republican but from 
Democratic journals, as to the resnlt of the in- 
dictment which was brought against Governor 
Davis. 

The Clerk read as follows: 

[Houston Daily Union. Februar>' 19, 1872.] 

AuSTfN, February 19,1872. 

Four members of the grand jury of the Federal 
court wliioli recently indicted Governor Diivis have 
been implicated ns having been bribed to indict 
Republican.s mid to shield Democrats. 

General Davidson, chief of the State police, holds 
the receipts given by them for the money they re- 
ceived for ignoring a bill against a prominent Dcm- 
oorat of Bryan, wuo is charged with revenue frauds 
to a largo amount. 

The State police are on tho track of ex-Deputy 
Marshal Wallace, who summoned himself on tho 
grand jury, and also on track of other members of 
the grand jury, who are all supposed to have accepted 
bribes. 

Considerable evidence has been obtained, which 
indicates that tho whole grand jury, with one or two 
exceptions, was bribed. TRACY 

In view of the astounding developments as to the 
bribing cif the Federal grand jury, the evidence of 
which is fiist coming to light, the conspirators hero 
who prostituted tho Federal court in order to over- 
throw the State government, are tilled with conster- 
nation and do not know what to do. 

The State Journal, in to-morrow morning's issue, 
will publish the receipts given by tho bribed grand 
jurors for tho money they received. 

Mengcr, of Comal county, soema to have been the 
ringleader iu the affair. 

[Daily State Journal. Austin, February 20, 1872.] 

A Briiikd Grand Jury— Muroer will Out.— 
Ever since the indictment of iho Governor by a 
grand jury of the Federal court, upon which three 
deputy marshals sat as members, subpenaed by 
themselves, we have been satisfied there was some- 
thing "roticn ill Denmark." The fact that Repub- 
licans could be indicted upon the most frivolous pre- 
tenses, while Di-mocrats charged with tho gravest 
offenses cseupcd, was an additional evidence that the 
grand jury in (luestioii wxs but the creature of a vile 
clique in Austin, who were determined to prostitute 
the Unit('d States court for tho purpose of breaking 
down the Stat'- government and throwing discredit 
upon the Republican party in general. 

Detectives, under the direction of Adjutant Gen- 
eral Davidson, were accordingly set to work to fer- 
ret out and unearth the suspected villainy. After a 
thorough and r'ationt effort, evidence enough has 
been obtained to convict several members of the 
ground jury ofthe crime ot bribery. 

Following is a portion of iho evidence in the case 
of four members : 

[8:50.) Austin. Frbrunry^, 1872. 

Received of the above amount, in full for 

the services of u committee of four persons on tho 
United States grand jury, in a tobacco ca«(«of Sim- 
ouw. JOSbPU MENGLR. 

Foreman of laid committee. 



For prudential reiu>on8 we withhold the name of 
the party to whom this receipt was given, but it is 
in our posses.«ioii and tubjcct to the order of the 
proper authorities. 

The original rrcipf, signed by .Joseph Monger, 
of Comal county, is in the han'ls of General David- 
son, chief of the police of the State. 

We have other evidences in our possession point- 
ing to the bribery of the mi'mbers. which, by tho 
advice of General Davidson, wo withhold for tho 
present. 

We present enough to satisfy every unprejudiced 

Eerson that the grand jury of the Federal court was 
ribed, that it was simply a tool in the bands of 
disloyal tricksters to overthrow the State goveni- 
mcnt and defraud the United States Government of 
its legitimate revenues. We will hr>ld the balance 
in reserve until r)ermitted by the authorities to 
make it public. Wo understand that since tho dis- 
trict attorney lian learned ofthe bribery ofthe grand 
jury he has determined to apply to the court to 
quiish all indictments found by them, and ask for 
the impanneling of a new jury. The court, in vin- 
dication of its own dignity, should at once iiroceod 
to sift the matter to the bottom, and we doubt not 
will grant the motion ofthe attorney. 

Mr. HANCOCK. JJr. Speaker, I will state 
to ray colleague that since our conversation 
yesterday I have seen telegrams which passed 
between the Attorney General atid the raar- 
shal ; 1 had not seen anything of tliem before. 
With ray colleague's permission I will send 
them to the Clerk's desk to be read. 

Mr. CLARK, of Texas. The gentleman 
can have them read afier I get through. 

Mr. HANCOCK. The time occupied in 
reading these telegrams need not be taken 
out of my colleague's time, I presume. 

Mr. CLARK, of Texas. When I got through 
my colleague can go on. The State Gazette, 
a Democratic paper which my colleage ought 
to indorse, and 1 presume does indorse, con- 
tains the same statement and makes the same 
points which have been made by the papers 
just read at the Clerk's desk. 

Now, Mr. Speaker, understanditig this thing 
very well, I believe that I know (he game 
which is going on, although .some gentlemen 
think that I am not "jios'ed." There was a 
rea.son why the floor was denied rae yesterday 
morning, it will appear some day that a gen- 
tl.:iman who was not in his seat yesterday morn- 
ing is a partner in th^ law Grin who were en- 
gaged to bring about this very indictment. I 
have no doubt, sir, (and I say it looking him 
right in the face,) that he w.is close by when 
the gentleman from New York objecti-d to 
my making a personal explaimtion. I know 
the tricks of these damnable villains too well. 
Sir, I know the rottenness, the wretcliedncss, 
the blood-red villainy of the Dt-raocracv of 
Texas very well. I have seen it put to 
me with double-barreled shot-guns too often 
not to know when and where to respond 
to it. 

Mr. HANCOCK. May I ask my colleague 
wha' he means by his allusion? 

Mr. CLARK, of Texas. I will tell my 
colleague what I mean by and by. He has 
thrown down the g.iuntlet here, and I have 



18 



taken it up in behalf of seventy thousand 
honest Republicans of my State. 

Now, Mr. Speaker, I want no controversy 
with my colleague. It is only by accident 
that I found out that he was behind the whole 
movement here which yesterday took me off 
the floor. He knew perfectly well that I was 
compelled to go down to Texas and fight over 
again the battle for the occupancy of my seat 
in this House; and he had not the honesty, he 
had not the courage to stand up here himself 
and object to my proceeding, but he put flome- 
body else forward to do it. 

Mr. HANCOCK. If that language is in 
order and proper, I think I might be permitted 
to reply to it by saying that it is utterly false ; 
there is not one word of truth in it. 

The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair 
decides that the gentleman is not in order. 
His language is unparliamentary. 

Mr. HANCOCK. I think my language is 
pertinent to tliat of my colleague. 

Mr. CLARK, of Texas. Well, I apologize 
to the House for saying anything here that is 
not in order. 

Mr. HANCOCK. I have no apology to 
make for saying what I have. 

Mr. CLARK, of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I 
go on with the point I was making, simply 
desiring to correct my friend from Kentucky 
[Mr. Beck] in some remarks which he made 
in this House, on the 22il of January and the 
16th of February, regarding the Governor of 
my State. I send to the Clerk's desk, to be 
read, extracts from those remarks. 

The Clerk read as follows: 

"D.avis, of Texas, a tyrant and usurper, who is 
denounced by his people, regardless of party, as a 
fiend in human form frhose orders and acts are a 
di8gr.i<:e to American civilization." » » • • 
" I know why these charijes are made. What I said 
about the State government of Tennessee was also 
said about the men who bold the reins of govern- 
ment in the other States, and £ said a good deal 
more about some of them. One man — Governor 
Davis, of Texas— was, as I aftcrwanl learned, stand- 
ing in this Hall looking me in the face when I said 
it. 1 said more of Governor Bullock of Georgia, 
when he sat on this floor in the last Congress. I 
have said more about nearly all of the others; they 
are not all cripples and jmbecilcs. I have never 
told a lie about one of them. I am prepared to 
prove every fact which I have stated here or else- 
where about the tyranny of the usurpers in the 
southern States." 

Mr. CLARK, of Texas. Now, Mr. Speaker, 
let us consider tiiis question between the gen- 
tleman from Kentucky and myself. There is 
no gentleman on the floor ot this House for 
whom I have entertained a higher regiird than 
for the gentleman from Kentucky. 1 admire 
him personally ; I have known him well. I 
have watched his course iierc, and I would not 
say what I have to say now did 1 not know 
that he has a heart as big as An ox ; if ho ever 
does a wrong to anybody lie is the first man to 
get up and apologize for it. Tiie fact that he 
has received his information from irresponsi- 



ble or prejudiced parties is the reason why he 
stands up here and calls the Governor of my 
State a "fiend in human form." The gen- 
tleman from Kentucky is an honorable man. 
He said the other day, as I understood him, 
that he was born in Virginia, though some gen- 
tleman suggests to me now that his remark was 
that he had family ties connecting him with 
Virginia. At any rate he is now identified 
with southern interests and southern men. I 
believe him to be a chivairic gentleman. I do 
not believe that he would say an unkind word 
about anybody unless he believed that he was 
thereby subserving the interests of his country. 

But I ask him to tell me here and now 
whether if he had "all the blood of all the 
Howards" in his veins he could stand up in 
this House and tell a man who was a guest of 
the House, and whose lips were closed, that 
he was a "fiend in human form?" Is that 
courageous? Is that Kentucky chivalry? That 
is the issue between the gentleman and my- 
self. Governor Davis was the guest of this 
House. As the gentleman from Kentucky has 
said, he looked him in the face when the gen- 
tleman called him a " fiend in human form ;" 
but he regarded him with pity, and I had al- 
most said with contempt. With a countenance 
" more in sorrow than in anger " did he regard 
the gentleman from Kentucky on that day. 

Mr. BECK. The gentleman will allow me 
one word at this point; I may say more here- 
after. I said in my last remarks that I had 
not learned till after my first speech that Gov- 
ernor Davis, of Texas, was present when I 
made it. When I made that first speech I did 
not know that he was here. I merely wish to 
say now thai in my speech I was speaking of 
the public characters of men, and not of their 
private characters — not one word. 

Mr. CLARK, of Texas. I will come to that 
in a moment. Then I understand my friend 
from Kentucky as saying that he was speak- 
ing of the public character of Governor Davia, 
of Texas, when he said he was a " fiend ia 
human form." Am I right? 

Mr. BECK. I was speaking of his public 
acts. I do not know him personally; I never 
met him privately, and I do not know any- 
thing about his private character. It was OQ 
public acts alone that I was commenting. 

Mr. CLARK, of Texas. I know that my 
friend from Kentucky will never knowingly do 
an unfair or dishonorable thing to anybody at 
any time. 

Now, to the points which I intend to make 
in this controversy. That gentleman gets the 
record of the Governor of my Slate from the 
villains who would vilify any man's character 
or any woman's character anywhere. There 
is where he gets his record. I know the deep- 
dyed, damnable villainy of the hounds after 
Governor Davis better than any man on this 
floor. Govertior Davis was born on southern 



19 



soil. He was born in Florida; he grew up 
among her pines, going to Texas when u young 
man. When the war broke out where was he, 
I ask the gentleman from Kentucky? I ask 
his attention to this litile point right here and 
now. Where was he when Governor Davis 
left the State with a rope around his neck, put 
there by the friends of the gentleman from Ken- 
tucky ? After his escape he organized a regi- 
ment, then a brigade, and fought his way back 
to where he is now, at the head of Union troops, 
through the rebel lines. Where was the gen- 
tleman from Kentucky then? If history reads 
rightly he was doubting whether he would go 
for right and freedom and Union, or for wrong 
and disunion. I make no reflections on my 
friend in that regard. He had the rigiit to his 
opinion. He may have been surrounded by 
family ties which bound him down as my own 
brother was, whom I fought and captured twice 
during the war. Governor Davis, on the con- 
trary, whom the gentleman from Kentucky has 
designated as a "fiend in human form," has 
done more for Texas than any man who has 
ever lived in that State, except old Sam 
Houston himself. Governor Davis was always 
a friend of old Sam Houston, and it was 
through his influence and at his request I 
appointed the son of Sam Houston as a cadet 
at West Point. 

Now, Mr. Speaker, I think I am through, so 
far as the charges against Governor Davis are 
concerned. I'he gentleman from Kentucky 
(and he is an honorable man) took the proofs 
which came to him, and when he becomes 
satisfied the charges against Governor Davis 
are wrong will, I know, apologize to this 
House, and be the first man to retract what he 
has said. 

Now, in order to show the gentleman from 
Kentucky that he was mistaken, that his in- 
formation has been incorrect, that he has been 
cajoled and prejudiced in making these state- 
ments, 1 will call his attention for a moment 
to the tax-payers' convention referred to in 
the minority report, and to the character of 
the twenty-one tax payers making the indict- 
ment to which he has referred against the 
Governor of my State. 1 know my friend is 
anxious to hear about that. 

I propose to show to him that of the twenty- 
one tax-payers all but five were men whose lips 
are blisiertd with treason, and whose hands 
are red with the blood of Union men ; men 
who belonged to the secession convention, and 
intent in carrying out their projects to plunge 
the Stale of Texas again into civil war. That 
is part of the proof which the gentleman from 
Kentucky has not had, or he would not have 
been inclined to make the remarks he lias \ 
made about Governor Davis. Five of the i 
twenty one were Union men ; there is no doubt I 
about the fact that they were Union men dur- | 



ing the war, and they are now welcome to their 
present association. 

The gentleman from Kentucky has been in- 
duced to make his remarks for another reason. 

Mr. BFCK. 1 did not hear the gentleman's 
last remark. 

Mr. CLARK, of Texas. The gentleman 
from Kentucky, I say, has been induced to 
make his remarks for another reason. The 
Stale debt according to the report furnished 
him has been increased to $14,000,000. Very 
well. I shall not go over the whole minority 
report of the Ku Klux committee. I shall 
send to the Clerk's desk, however, to be read 
a statement of the treasurer of the State of 
Texas in regard to the debt of that State. 

The Clerk read as follows : 

Teeasurer's Office. 

Austin, October 1, 1871. 
lion. W. A. Saylor: 

In compliance with your request, I have the 
honor to submit the I'ollowing siatemeut: 

Oustanding warrants $151,169 01 

Frontier bonds gold 377.000 (0 

Five per cent. State bonds 216. &41 08 

Six per cent. State bonds 3J0.367 13 

Cumptroiler's certificates of indebtedness 89.70J 91 

Total «1. 454,887 13 

It is proper to remark that the five and six per 
cent, bonds are a portion <>f the ante be'lmn debt. 
GEORGE W. UONEY, 
Trea»urer State of Texa*. 

Mr. CLARK, of Texas. Mr. Speaker, 
that is the statement from the books of the 
treasury department of Texas showing the 
debt on that day. The five and fLk per cent, 
bonds include the ante helium debt of about 
five hundred thousand dollars. The warrants, 
amounting to about three hundred thousand 
dollars, have already been paid. If we deduct 
these amounts from the statement, we have 
about six hundred thousand dollars left as the 
present debt of the State of Texas. 

Now, then, gentlemen will say that the 
Legislature of Texas has voted a subsidy to the 
amount of $12,000,000. F'or that we have 
twelve hundred miles of railroad. And if 
they will search the journals of the Legisla- 
ture they will find that every Democrat but 
three votpd every time for that very debt. 
And yet they come up here and incorporate in 
the Ku Klux minority report a statement repre- 
senting this as a debt created by the ilcpubli- 
can parly in my State. The Governor has 
vetoed every bill of that character, and that is 
why the gcnilemen hate him so. That did not 
suit the Austin ring. I challenge either of my 
colleagues on this floor to point to anything 
done by the Governor of our State which does 
not show integrity of character and honesty 
of purpose. That he has made some mistakes 
I admit, lie has appointed some Democrats 
to office, which he ought not to have done, 



20 



LIBRftRY OF CONGRESS 



f III III I II I I 

014 543 967 ft 



and this, I think, is about the only mistake I^e 
ever coinmitied. 

[Here the hammer fell.] 

Mr. ARTHUR rose. 

Mr. CLARK, of Texas. I want only two 
or three minutes longer. 

Mr. ARTHUR. I yield three minutes to 
the gentleman. 

Mr. CLARK, of Texas. I hope I will 
have time enough to conclude the remarks 
which I desire to address to the House. 

I know, Mr. Speaker, how my I'riend from 
Kentucky [Mr. Bkck] is to come hack upon 
me in his reply. He will tell the House where 
he got his information. He will read the 
names of those twenty-one tax payers. He 
will quote my lionoral)le colleague from the 
fourth district, [Mr. Hancock.] and my col- 
league from the first district, [.Mr. Hekxdox,] 
and every Dt^mocratic paper thire about the ter- 
rible outrages committed by the Radical party 
in Texas. But he will not say one word iiboul 
what the Democratic party has done there. He 
will not tell you and this House that, in the 
twenty five years during which the Democracy 
held that State, with their control of all the 
millions of acres of land and the iniUious of 
money in bonds and in gold, they did not- build 
a schonl-house. and built only about four hun- 
dred miles of raiUvay. He will not tell you 
that since the Republican party came into 
power we have over twelve hundred scliools. 
and ninety thousand childr(;n in thorn, or that 
■we have built more miles of railway since we 
held that. Slate in 18G9 than were ever built 
in the State before. Oh, no I He-will tell 
you about the operation of the police bill ; and 
I answer him by saying in advance that the 
money which has been saved by the operation 
of that police bill, by breaking up the gangs 
which ru-;lied down from Missouri and Kansas, 
and whom we have driven out across our bor- 
ders, is more than suflicieut to pay all its 
expenses. 

Mr. Speaker, I desire to take the floor 
during tlie time of the gentleman from Illi- 
nois merely to make a few remarks in answer 
to the gentleman from Kentucky [Mr. 
Beck] and my colleague from 'I'cxas, [.Mr. 
Hancock.] The gentleman from Kentucky 
is out of the House, but my colleague still 
remains. What 1 have to say is simply to 
reiterate what I said regarding the charges 
m&de against the Governor of my Slate. When 



the time comes, and it will come, and. Mr. 
Speaker, it shall come, when I will stand here 
to vindicate my Governor and the Republican 
party in my State against the aspersions of any 
metnber. I will bring "proof strong as holy 
writ" to substantiate every word that I have said 
upon this floor. 

Mr. Speaker, I know too well what opposi- 
tion I am to have from my colleague from the 
fourth district. [Mr. Hancock,] and my col- 
league from the first district, [.Mr. Hekndon,] 
and from the gentleman from Kentucky, [.Mr. 
Beck;] but I warn them here and now that I 
will remain on this floor until I have vindicated 
for all time to come the conduct of my Gov- 
ernor and the administration of my State. 

The gentleman from the fourth district 
[Mr. Hancock] read the names of some 
{)ersons who were connected with the tax- 
payers' convention in my State. What he has 
said about them personally I do not under- 
take to challenge here. I remind him, how- 
ever, that when I made my statement 
with regard to the tax-payers' conventirm I 
excepted five gentlemen out of the iwenty-one 
who made a report to the minority of the Ku 
Klux Committee. When he comes to arraign 
before this House the conduct of my party in 
my State, and for proof cites the action of 
that tax-payers' coiiveution, 1 assure him 
that I will be here to meet him or any other 
man. From a private soldier, with my mus- 
ket on my shoulder, 1 fought my way to the 
grand Empire State of JVxas, of wliirh I am 
now an honored representa'ive. and I intend to 
maintain the integrity and the honor of my 
party in my State so long as God gives me a 
voice upon this floor. 

I do not mean to trespass long upon the 
time of my friend from Illinois, [Mr. Snapi',] 
but since I .said this morning that 1 iu- 
tonded to go back to Texas and take testi- 
mony in my case, I have found that I can take 
belter testimony here. And I tell my col- 
leagues, and I tell my good friend from Ken- 
tucky, that I will meet them here when the 
Ku Klu.x bill comes up for consideration; and 
if I cannot, with the proofs before me, vm- 
dicale the action of my party and my Gov- 
ernor in my State, in doing what they have 
done for me and for others like me, "the boys 
in blue," I will make my bow to the Speaker 
of this House, and go out of this Congress with- 
out a single word. 



